Thursday, 29 June 2017

CXXXII. Abhorrant Ghoul Queen's Court: Crypt Horrors

A new Crypt Horror joins the court. Janos the Cannibal was a knight errant, on an important mission to slay and devour ungodly followers of Chaos. Sorin the Vigilant, his new brother in arms, sees his purpose in guarding the Queen's person and possessions.

Sorin the Vigilant, Ghoul Queen's knight.

I. BACKGROUND

"Crypt Horrors were once ghouls who have been fed vampire blood by their Abhorrant Ghoul King, and as a result, have been given a larger, stronger form by the power of dark sorcery. In the depths of their delusion, Crypt Horrors believe themselves to be heroic knights charging into battle clad in shining plate."

W:AoS Death Battletome: Flesh-eater Courts

The Horrors are the kingdom's elite soldiers; they see themselves as noble knights. They have regenerative powers and are fond of trophies and tokens from their ruler.

II. OFFICIAL MODELS

Source: games-workshop.com

Cypt Flayers kit from
GW. This kit has three figures inside, each of which can be assembled as any of five (!) different types of creature: Crypt Horrors, Crypt Flayers, Crypt Haunter Courtiers, Crypt Infernal Courtiers and Vargheists. The design they went for is obviously a huge, ripped version of Ghouls, which makes sense. Like all models in the faction, they look feral and are represented in a dynamic pose. I must say that only the running one has nice flow in it, the other two poses are somewhat stiff.

III. WHAT I DID, HOW, AND WHY

I, too, aimed to make the Horrors a larger and more imposing version of Ghouls. Instead of going the route of six-packs and giant biceps, I opted for a heavier body type. Their higher status grants them larger share of flesh to gorge on, so obesity is definitely not out of place here. To reflect their delusion of being knights, they wear scraps of armour and are armed with scavenged weapons and shields - same as my Ghouls.

The body I used for Sorin was from my least favourite Blightking in the kit - the one with a bell in his hollow gut and a very unappealing walking pose. I cut the legs and repositioned them into something more satisfactory.

Blightkings are fantastic conversion material. In this case, their corroded, piecemeal armour and huge gut made them perfect body donors. The part that worried me when making Sorin was the head. I needed to make it fit with both the Ghouls and the already finished Horror Janos, who predated this project and whose head came from a Tomb Banshee. The issue is that Goblins my Ghouls are made of have larger heads than the Banshee. They all need to look like a part of the same family, so I searched the Hobbit Goblin sprue for ones with the smallest faces. There were several candidates, and I picked the one I thought most fitting. I cut off the face and transplanted it on the Blightking, and then built a bald head around it with green stuff. I'm very happy with the result.

I love the way your minis refelct the "rotten court" theme the flesh eaters have.One small thing, gameswise: horrors are huge figures, even bigger than an ogre and stand on 50mm bases, so yours are still in the early phases of their growth stage. ;)

That's right. But I was going for something closer in size and shape to human/ghoul. They would match the size of official Horror models if they were on horseback. That would also be a cool thing to convert, so maybe I'll get into that somewhere down the line. This isn't an isolated case, I'll mostly be downscaling from what GW has done; with the exception of my vampire, she will be larger than the stock figure.

Basecoat was Celestra Grey. Glazed with watered-down Rakarth Flesh. Then I applied a number of controlled brown and red washes, to accentuate the folds in his flabby flesh and all the interesting details. Blue wash beneath the eyes. Highlights were then done with Celestra Grey and Celestra Grey + white.

Really love the idea of the blightkings converted up as the Horrors. I picked up a box of the Goblin Town Warriors for my ghouls, just because they look a lot better and more characterful. Then i stumbled across this blog, and i'm feeling guilty for really wanting to do my own attempt as these kinds of horrors ^^;;

Going to keep reading on, seeing how this all turns out. Keep up the great work ^^

Wow these are amazing! I have been digging around for some sort of alternative to the GW ones, but I think beyond my skills. Interesting the heads are similar scale, i might try some different bones models as bases with the heads.

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